GO and WORK: Grocery Holdings and Slack Sizzle on Public Debuts

Grocery Outlet IPO

While all eyes are on the Slack (WORK) IPO today, another public market debut is also having a good first day out there. Deep-discount retail Grocery Outlet Holding (GO) opened at $28 today, 27% up from its list price of $22. The opening price translated to a valuation of $2.4 billion for the company.

At 2:57 PM ET, the stock was trading at $29.3, around 33% up from its list price. Slack opened 47% higher than the reference price and was trading 4.5% above its opening price at 3:06 PM EDT.

Worlds apart

While both Slack (WORK) and Grocery Outlet Holding (GO) are on fire today, the two companies and their public debuts are worlds apart.

Slack is the new-age tech company helping teams collaborate, and Grocery Outlet Holding is an offline retailer. While Slack continues to make losses, Grocery Outlet Holding has reported $3.8 million in profit in Q1 2019. Interestingly, Slack listed on NYSE while the non-tech Grocery Holding preferred the tech-heavy Nasdaq for its listing.

While Slack ditched investment bankers and went with a direct offering, Grocery Outlet Holding chose the traditional path of the IPO. With the S&P 500 hovering close to its all-time highs, it’s a good day for the market—but especially for these two debuts.